Comparative Grammar of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French: Learn & Compare 4 Languages Simultaneously

I cannot thank the author enough for writing this innovative book. I always wanted to learn Portuguese, further my French and begin Italian parting from Spanish (my native language). This book does it and puts in context which is one things I like the most about this book. I like the examples used by the author. However, I did find some MINOR mistakes, but the author does point that out at the beginning of the book. I think that humble statement pumps the star count to five. He does not claim to have everything figured out, nor does he claims a secret technique that promises faster learning in less time. No, he does not do so and I like that he is not pretentious about anything. He parts from the premise that one can learn more than one language at the same time. In this case: Romance Languages. This is a true fact, and I did not need a PhD.D. thesis (Which he (author) did and demonstrated that it is indeed possible), to support my opinion, since it is something that can be attested through my own experience. My mum taught me basic French since early age; I also received a bilingual education—English and Spanish—from K to 12—, since I was raised in Puerto Rico (a U.S. Territory). It is incredible how much these three languages are alike. The author uses Castilian Spanish as his reference for Spanish, which came as a nice surprise for me, since this is the one Puerto Ricans/Cubans are more familiar with, because of our common 400-year history shared with Spain. On another note, written Spanish and Portuguese are so similar that the author had to use synonyms for many words that mean the same in both languages. I figure this is a great technique to not make them so alike, and bring that monotonous aspect to a minimum. And this is good, because it builds vocabulary at the same time. However, do not expect to have this book as the one source for your learning, use dictionaries, verb books and other grammar works from each language to enrich the experience as you go along. I've taken my time with the book and have come to gain a lot. The book has many informative nuggets throughout, which, again, I like because those bits make it more fun to read. I definitely recommend this book to any person looking to begin studying the four main Romance languages, spoken by millions around the globe. Btw, if the author is reading this, write another book for Catalan (Català), Galician (Galego), Asturian (Bable), Romanian and/or other minor Romance languages like Mirandese, using Spanish as the backdrop for learning. I think doing so will incentivise people to learn more than just the four "popular" Romance languages and prevent these other languages from dying.

Please note that I'm reviewing the print version of this text- I see there may be some formatting issues with the Kindle version, which I can't speak to. I'm a native English speaker, but I have a French degree and have studied Italian and Latin (and, informally, Romance/Indo-European linguistics and conlangs as a nerdy teenager). I now need/want to learn Spanish, but it's been such a slog finding a book in English for learning any Romance language if you already know how Romance languages generally function. For me, many of the current books and courses are just paced too slowly, and I find them hard to stick to as a result. This book really hits the spot- we really needed a comparative grammar like this. There's nearly 800 pages of material, with chapters divided into nouns, pronouns, verbs, time/date, detailing how each of the four Romance languages operate. The information is well-organized, neatly tabulated, with separate subheadings for topics that require a little more language-specific discussion. There's bits and pieces of cultural information and even a chapter on interjections with a couple of comparative vulgarities included- a nice little bonus in this well-written and comprehensive book. Mr. Petrunin dedicated his book "to all language lovers like me." I rarely ever write reviews for anything on Amazon, and I've been a very active member for a decade, but I really would like to thank Mr. Petrunin for his work- I've been waiting for a resource exactly like this for YEARS!

I love this. I love it. It is so well-done. I love it. Have I said that I love this?! I am long-time, casual speaker of French and Spanish. I recently decided that I would like to add Italian to my languages, so I started buying teach-yourself-Italian books from Amazon. Its algorithm made note of that and recommended this one to me. Though I have only begun to use it, I find it delightful, informative, effective and full of easy-to-use, yet thorough and detailed information. For someone who wants to learn a new language (Italian) and refresh older ones, it is an exceptional tool. I can't recommend it highly enough

This book is excellent, particularly if you already have a base understanding of one of the languages presented. For example, I have been learning French for about 3 years, and I am able to understand the comparative grammatical concepts much easier since I already have a base understanding of the French construction and rules. One of the best features of this book is the sheer quantity of examples utilized for each point. Of course, one cannot learn these languages using this book alone, and it is necessary to supplement it with other resources, such as films, podcasts, and YouTube videos to learn proper pronunciation, the accents of each country, etc. There are a few typos here and there, but they are not overly distracting. Note: I have the hardcover version which has held together well, but it is a rather thick book, so I cannot speak to the sturdiness of the paperback.

While I’m certainly no linguist, I do aspire to be a polyglot. After having muddled through French prior to college (and again in graduate school), it took an attempt at teaching myself Italian and Spanish that disillusioned me re: the idea of studying each Romance language sequentially. There were too many similarities in grammar, idioms, and vocabulary, so the effort felt needlessly duplicative. Therefore, when I saw Dr. Petrunin’s book it was literally an answer to my prayers: a straightforward approach to using those similarities to the language learner’s advantage. I understand that he is now doing the same thing with the West Germanic and Nordic languages, efforts that I’m breathlessly anticipating. This is a great book and certainly worth the while of anyone interested in learning as many of the great Western European tongues as she can. I have two copies as I would not want to be without it.

I have been using Amazon for several years, and this is the first time I have felt the need to write a review. I have a solid foundation in Spanish but had been wanting to learn or deepen my understanding of Italian, Portuguese, and French as well. I did not, however, really want to learn these Romance languages individually from scratch without seeing their relationships to Spanish and other Romance languages. After all, one can learn a language more quickly if they can clearly see its relationship to other languages that they know well. This book shows the relationship between four Romance languages clearly with neat tables, logical formatting, and descriptions of differences. Additionally, it is entertaining to read since it has many interesting facts pertaining to the languages. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in Romance languages, and I'm surprised that a book like this hadn't been written earlier!

I have been waiting for a book like this for years. Thank you so much for the time it took to pull this together so well. If you know one or two or these languages, the others will come pretty easily. This book sounds scary at first and contains a ton of information. But it is broken down into digestible chunks so you can skim and revisit sections as needed. I know some spanish and italian and bought this to help me learn portuguese. I started the verb section this week and am blown away by the similarities and am now accidentally learning French. I cannot thank you enough for this book and encourage all language geeks / travelers/ descendants of foreign nationals/ humans etc to buy this book now! Wish I had it in college years ago.

When Cardinal Bergoglio was elected Pope, the international press reported that he was the first Latin American Pope. President Obama corrected it: Pope Francis was the first Pope of the Americas. Mikhail Petrunin delivers more than he promises. In the book title: Comparative Grammar of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French. In the book: These Neo-latine languages are related to English. Therefore, the goal is to introduce these languages to English speakers, to promote inter-comprehension among Latin-derived languages, but perhaps without realizing it it has made it easier for speakers of these languages to learn English. In this way, Mr. Petrunin comparatively teaches us the basic structure of the most widely spoken languages on the American continent. At this time when so many advocate division this formidable scholar offers us a tool that promotes unity. There is no better way to promote mutual respect than to learn the languages of others, to respect and even admire their culture, and to acknowledge that we all live the human adventure. The languages studied by Mr. Petrunin cover the inhabitants of Alaska to Argentina, but they are present in all five continents. It is his contribution to the promotion of peace.

Muy exhaustivo y fácil de seguir. Todos los errores que se mencionaron en anteriores comentarios ya fueron corregidos.

I bought this book with pretty high expectations, and I’m really happy to say it exceeded my expectations! The information is very useful and helpful. I really like the way the book is organized too. It teaches basic concepts of all languages at the beginning and then gets more advanced as your progress through the chapters. There are some cool cultural notes included as well. I definitely recommend any book by Mikhail!

Simple à utiliser, mais il faut connaître l'anglais puisque les explications sont en anglais.

Sono di madrelingua portoghese, ho imparato il francese da adulta e ora sto imparando l'italiano. Questo libro mi sta aiutando nello studio di questa nuova lingua. È molto utile per registrare concetti di base di ogni lingua, ovviamente non approfondisce molto ogni idioma, sarebbe impossibile, ma lo trovo comunque molto utile. Lo consiglio a tutti i miei amici, soprattutto a coloro che amano le lingue latine.

Dieser Sprachenvergleich ist genial.